A case study from a gold mining company : a call for leadership towards more sustainable futures

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Gold mining in South Africa is an industry that is more than a century old. The impact of goldmines on communities and the environment are enormous. This thesis is a case study basedin one of the major gold producers in South Africa that has been in operation for more than50 years and has more than 30 years of life still left. Exploring the impact mining has had oncommunities and the environment, this thesis is a call for leadership action towardssustainable futures. This call is made through a suggested sustainable developmentleadership framework.Georgius Agricola gave a warning regarding the devastating environmental impacts ofmining as early as 1556, however mining still has the same negative impacts to theenvironment and people. The argument in this thesis is that, it is only through genuineleadership that the impacts of mining can be mitigated. However leadership is looked at notfrom the position of the leader or the leadership style but from the belief system of theleader when it comes to environmental management and community development.The motivation for the study was based in observing how leadership at our Gold mine ralliedbehind prevention of mine closure when the mine was faced with electricity crisis in 2008.The electricity crisis demonstrated that it is through genuine and committed leadership thatall challenges can be overcome including sustainable development crisis. The call forleadership at our mine is to demonstrate the same leadership commitment in addressingenvironmental and community development challenges.The literature review begins by highlighting sustainable development global challenges andinitiatives to address them. This is followed by impacts of gold mining on society and theenvironment around the various regions of the world. Leadership belief systems are thendiscussed, highlighting, how belief systems influence the way a leader responds toenvironmental issues.In developing the sustainable development leadership framework findings fromobservations, conversations, interviews and focus group discussion that were conductedthroughout the mine are presented. The aim of the research was to determine theunderstanding of employees on the impact of our company on communities, environmentand themselves and also the employees' opinions of leadership.The findings were that the majority of employees believe that leadership is not genuine inaddressing community, employee safety and health, and environmental issues at ourcompany and through interviews with leadership, the findings are that, environment andcommunity issues are done for compliance and reputation purposes with no genuine beliefthat they should be done.To address this understanding a call to leadership is made through a suggested sustainabledevelopment leadership framework that takes into consideration the findings from the casestudy. The thesis ends by proposing that this suggested framework should be tested furtherwithin our company.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University